In general, burn-in stress testing or other predetermined testing operations may be performed on integrated circuit devices while they are still in the wafer state before final packaging. Unlike operations associated with a "normal" operating mode, test mode operations, such as burn-in stress testing or other predetermined testing operations, may be carried out using only a subset of all the input and output pins associated with an integrated circuit device.
Conventional integrated circuit devices may be designed to have an additional "dummy" pad through which a mode signal may be transmitted to place the integrated circuit device into a test mode (ie., configure the integrated circuit device for burn-in stress testing or other predetermined testing operations) or into a normal operating mode. The dummy pad may further include an input pin associated therewith for transmitting the mode signal. Unfortunately, because both the dummy pad and the input pin are typically assembled inside the chip, the chip size may increase. Furthermore, more complex test equipment may be needed to generate the mode signal, which may increase the manufacturing costs of such test equipment due to the additional complexity.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved integrated circuit devices having improved test capabilities.